The Rohingyas violently expelled by Myanmar are not recognized as international refugees by Bangladesh. Despite lacking citizenship and the right to work, they have sought to survive through covert employment in labour markets and clientelist relations that provide protection for a price. The Rohingya experience raises wider issues about systematic population displacements in the 21st century driven by genocidal campaigns of ethnic and religious persecution and legitimated by contested notions of the ‘imagined community’ and national security.